PPT loading error in Collaborate

I am desperately trying to troubleshoot an error I keep getting when uploading PPT slides in Collaborate. I have had no problems in the past, but suddenly this week I keep getting an error: "failure calling PowerPoint up to process presentation."

I have made sure PPT is up to date and have reinstalled BB Collaborate.

You mention re-installing Collaborate, so I assume you're using Collab Original and not Collab Ultra. Nothing has changed in terms of Collab Original uploading Powerpoint documents. Please open a support ticket. Attach the document you are using in case they can reproduce something. Based on the error, though, I'm not sure that will matter. You might try uploading a single slide with some text and see if you get a different outcome.

You mention re-installing Collaborate, so I assume you're using Collab Original and not Collab Ultra. Nothing has changed in terms of Collab Original uploading Powerpoint documents. Please open a support ticket. Attach the document you are using in case they can reproduce something. Based on the error, though, I'm not sure that will matter. You might try uploading a single slide with some text and see if you get a different outcome.

Christopher's initial quest is about Powerpoint to Whiteboard conversion in Collaborate Classic (a.k.a. Original Experience) clearly indicated by the screenshot of the error message. This is an almost different platform than Collaborate Ultra mentioned by Luiz and others. Let me explain this difference in terms of PPT uploading troubles, that might occur on both platforms from different causes.

Christopher, just in case Blackboard support did not solve your particular problem having raised all of a sudden, I describe the DIY approach to solve such problems by learning more about the gear inside.

Collaborate Classic is a local Java application running on a Java stack sitting directly on the OS (Mac OSx, Windows, Linux). The Java application is not able to decode PPT files itself, because Microsoft did not publish the PPT specification in detail and file format changes may happen with any new Office version. If you choose "Load Content" and select a Powerpoint file (or OpenOffice Impress btw), the Java application calls out for any Microsoft Office or OpenOffice installation on the same computer. If some Office answers to be ready for handling PPT(X) files, Collaborate "Load Content" sends your presentation to the Office with the request "Convert it into a series of images (one per slide) and tell me the folder, where I can find this series". After receipt of the "Conversion done-folder is here" message, Collaborate "Load Content" imports each of the images into a new Collaborate whiteboard page.

indicates a fail of the very first step: Collaborate calls out for any Office and no one answers. This is often caused by Microsoft blocking the access of this kind of "remote procedure calls" after an Office update or installation of a second Office version in parallel (where none of the Offices answers such calls). Errors might occur later in the process too. Some seldom cases might need support investigation.

However, there are very simple causes also happening very often... let's go through the checklist first :

Is your PPT program installed at your computer ?Web-based Office versions are not compatible with Collaborate Classic. You mentioned "I have made sure PPT is up to date". Unfortunately, Microsoft started to offer SaaS versions as an upgrade to the usual local install. If your organisation moved Office from local to the web, Collaborate is no longer able to handle Powerpoint files, as there is no conversion program within reach.=> There are 2 workarounds how you master this situation not caused by Blackboard

Is your PPT program open at the time of the "Load Content" is pressed ? The PPT program must be closed in order to accept remote procedure calls (as an exclusive alternative to accept user interactions). Sometimes, the close attempt does not work completely due to errors in the Office program. => Please reboot your computer, start Collaborate and try again

Is your PPT file containing advanced features introduced with recent PPT program versions ?I suggest to save any PPT presentation as vintage PPT file, not PPTX ! This will offload your presentation from potentially critical new elements inside. By loading this .ppt you may inspect, if this changes your slides remarkably.

If the checklist does not solve your trouble, we advise our clients to reinstall / repair the Office installation. This aims to regain of the responsiveness for system level remote procedure calls.

Workarounds, if you have persisting trouble with Collaborate Classic's PPT opening into Whiteboard

Execute conversion manually, if the automated conversion fails. There is a support document describing, how you may export your presentation as a series of images. Unlike "Load Content from a PPT file", your Powerpoint program needs to be opened showing your presentation. You export the presentation pages as image files into an empty folder. Then you switch to Collaborate, execute "Load Content" and navigate to this folder, select all image files and execute open/ok.

Consider to install the free open-souce program "OpenOffice" in parallel to Powerpoint on your teacher's workplace. There is a support document describing, how you may advise Collaborate Classic to call OpenOffice for PPT upload.Some hints for this best practise from our German community It is not needed to install the whole OpenOffice package as Blackboard support mentions. For PPT conversion, you just need the presentation package "Impress". Unselect all other OpenOffice components during the manual installation process deleivers a slim-sized workaround worth to be rolled-out to all Collaborate Classic moderators. It is strongly recommended to save Powerpoints as .ppt files not .pptx OpenOffice can't reproduce all the undocumented changes within newer Microsoft products. It is common sense, that ppt files look more similar to the MS original than pptx files, if opened in 3rd party PPT converters

Luiz, you provided screenshots of your trouble with Collaborate Ultra. This newer Collaborate product works very different from the Classic gear described above. The Powerpoint conversion to images for slide display in Collaborate Ultra is a cloud servce (in the Amazon cloud next to you, I guess, in the Blackboard datacenter perhaps). The SaaS converter built by the Collaborate Ultra team claims to handle Powerpoint files in a similar way than MS Powerpoint does, but there is a wide field of details, which may differ (like special characters in file names, advanced presentation gimmicks disturbing the converter, etc.). Ultra PPT import is another 3rd party PPT converter like mentioned in the last clause.

Workarounds, if you have persisting trouble with Collaborate Ultra's PPT opening into Whiteboard

Unfortunately, the Classic workaround 1 above will practically not apply to Collaborate Ultra, because the upload of a series of images will result in a long list of files, where each file contains one slide only. But there is a similar workaround worth to try. Instead of exporting to a series of images, you may export into PDF format or print your presentation through a PDF printer. Make sure, that the aspect ratio fits appropriately to your landscape. It might need some DIY experiments to find an acceptable workaround, as the final slide appearance depends on both your local PDF converter settings and Blackboard's current ability to convert PDFs in-house

I'd like to nominate this response for some sort of award. I can only add that we have a few recent reports of ppts failing to load that we have someone investigating right now. If you are seeing this issue on Collaborate Ultra after January 10th, plese do open a support ticket and send them the offending ppt.